RCA Cables And Signal Transfer

[germaniohm]

I used a 100 foot triplicate cable with red and white RCA fittings and a third cable for power. I accidently switched poles and listened on the wrong one and got a signal! Why is this happening? Does the power cable have anything to do with it? Is there a way to eliminate this problem? Thank you.

 

[mneary]

Is there a way to eliminate this problem?

Connect the cables correctly.

 

[germaniohm]

Why bother if you have nothing intelligent to say?

 

[dknguyen]

Ask an intelligent question and you'll get an intelligent answer. YOu yourself said they were connected the wrong way. Why would you need to ask how to fix it?

You seem to have left out a lot of stuff. I'm can only assume you're hooking them up to speakers even though you didn't mention anything about speakers. What did you reverse the polarity of? The audio cable or the power cable? I also don't know what you mean by "listening to the wrong one". The wrong what? What is the right one? You also don't actually say anything about having a problem or what the problem is. You say you got a signal...normally that's a good thing.

 

[mneary]

Your problem as best as anyone can determine is that your cables are connected wrong. Pardon me for offering the best way I know to fix that.

Perhaps you can offer this basic information.

1) Where is the signal supposed to be applied?
2) Where did you connect it instead? 2a) Why?
3) Where is the signal supposed to be heard?
4) Do you hear it there?
5) Where do you also hear it?
6) Why is this a problem?
7) Are the red, white, and power cable individually shielded (screened)?
8) Is the screen connected properly?
9) Is the third cable (a) black, (b) green, (c) gray, or (d) yellow?
10) Is the third cable connected to the outer ring of the red and white RCA connectors or does it have an RCA connector of its own?
11) Or does the third (power) cable have 5.5mm coaxial plugs?

 

[germaniohm]

When I say "RCA", I mean the standard connections one might find on the back of a dvd player. RCA connector cable, also referred to as a phono connector or Cinch connector is sold precut at Radio Shack, Fry's, Staples and Target. It comes in 50, 60 and 100 foot lengths. Sometimes it has the type of cable one would find that transfers low voltage from adapters. This is the type I use. The corresponding plug is called an RCA plug or a phono plug. The RCA cable I purchased came with a power cable, a white RCA plug and a yellow RCA plug. I used the yellow RCA plug for the connection. I used the power cable to transfer 9 volts. The white RCA plug was left unused. The signal was very strong and I was more than satisfied. Then one day out of sheer confusion I switched the RCA plug used from yellow to white at the end of the device used. At my end, the opposite end, the yellow RCA plug was still in use. But when I decided to use my apparatus again, I got a signal but it was only 1/3 as strong. This led me to the horrifying discovery that the signal sent down the white RCA plug was now infiltrating to the wire terminationg at the yellow RCA plug!! How is this happening? Is RCA cable sold that prevents this from happening? Does the power cable that lays side by side with the two RCA cables have any influence on this type of phenomenon?

 

[dknguyen]

Could they just be bad cables? Or maybe the cables are running alongside each other for a long enough distance so there is a crapload of coupling going on? How long are they?

 

[mneary]

The yellow cable is normally used for video but it's perfectly OK to use it for small amounts of power. When one end isn't connected to anything, it may pick up unwanted signals, but the fact that it is a usable signal is a sign that the cable isn't a very high quality. 100 feet is a long cable.

I would suggest that as long as the cable works to your satisfaction when hooked up correctly it's not necessary to be horrified.